“I thought for sure they’d get in,” Jurich said Tuesday soon after the Louisville party landed. Jurich is in Denver where his Cardinals are a No. 4 seed at the Pepsi Center.

He has deep ties to this state. Jurich was Colorado State’s athletic director from 1994-97 and mentored current CU athletic director Mike Bohn. He had nothing but praise for the job Bohn has done in Boulder.

During his teleconference with the media Wednesday, NCAA Tournament selection committee chairman Gene Smith said of the eight teams sent to Dayton for the first round, “we will do everything we can to pay close attention to geography and respect travel” in regard to the four that would advance out of Dayton to the second round.

“We try to do that every year,” added Smith, Ohio State’s athletic director. ” But we won’t sacrifice the integrity of the seeding process to do that. … We’re really lucky because we have (second- and third-round) sites in D.C., Charlotte, Chicago, Cleveland that are options, reasonable places for those teams to advance to.”

So it appears if Northern Colorado, Colorado or Colorado State should make the 68-team field of the NCAA Tournament, if any are sent to Dayton and survive their game there, they probably probably would stay on the road rather than return to their homestate for second- and third-round games in the Pepsi Center.

OMAHA — Greetings from the cold-and-snowy home of the Mavericks of UNO, who face the DU Pioneers tonight and Saturday at the Qwest Center. Last time I was here was December 2005, watching Bono and the boys in the Vertigo tour. I saw U2 twice earlier that year at the Pepsi Center, and thought it would be fun to take my son, Anthony, who was 6 at the time. It was his first big show (but I’m not sure he remembers it). I guess that explains his hearing problem, and why he always seems to headman the puck to a winger when I scream “D to D” from the bench.

As we wrote in this space on Wednesday, sophomore Adam Murray is in the net for the Pios, who haven’t been swept in a WCHA series since Nov. 14-15, 2008 (at St. Cloud State). With a split or sweep this weekend, DU will be in guaranteed contention to play for the MacNaughton Cup as regular-season champion in next week’s final series against visiting St. Cloud.

I read in today’s local paper that UNO, which is in its inaugural WCHA season, never produced a top-four finish in the CCHA. But the Mavs will clinch a top-four WCHA finish with a win tonight.

DU’s lines are pretty much the same as last weekend. The scratches are freshman C Dan Olszewski and senior F/D Joey Brehm. The fourth line is center Nate Dewhurst and Shawn Ostrow and Jon Cook.

Jimmer Fredette is now a verb in the state of Utah, as in “to get Jimmered.” According to the Salt Lake Tribune, Utah certainly was “Jimmered” when BYU’s other-worldly senior guard incinerated the Utes with 47 points in a 104-79 mismatch.

Watching highlights on The Mtn. (which has renamed BYU “The Jimmer Show” or “Jimmer and the Pips” ) it’s difficult to comprehend Fredette has done this for three seasons and still no one has a clue on how to stop him.

Credit the Mtn. for total professionalism. BYU, in a classic cutting off one’s nose to spite the face act, is leaving next year for the WCC in basketball. Part of the football-driven departure was dissatisfaction with the Mountain West’s TV package.

The Mtn. put together a Fredette post-game highlight reel, including multiple angles of Fredette’s midcourt shot to beat the halftime buzzer. It’s hard to imagine ESPN having the time to do that.

Fredette enjoyed a 32-point first half for the senior.

It wasn’t a fluke. Fredette was coming off a 30.5 point average against UNLV and Air Force, earning ESPN national player of the week recognition.

If anyone wants to see one of the best pure shooters in the game, BYU makes its final trip to Colorado State Jan. 22 and to Air Force Feb. 9.

And if the NCAA bracket falls right, Fredette could be back in March when the Pepsi Center hosts the first weekend of the Tournament.

Colorado's head coach Tad Boyle takes part in practice in Balch Fieldhouse on Wednesday (Special To The Denver Post, David Zalubowski)

BOULDER — If the walls of the antiquated Balch Fieldhouse could hear, there was an unfamiliar sound this week in the Colorado athletic facility that time forgot.

The Buffs are holding basketball practice in the building next to the stadium this week. CU football fans know the building — it’s the old barn next to the stadium used to stay warm during halftime and buy concessions.

CU’s men’s and women’s basketball are evicted from their Coors Events Center home by final exams and (for those who pass their exams) winter graduation.

Greetings from DU. We have late word that DU freshman center Nick Shore has a fracture in his right hand/wrist and was fitted with a cast today before practice. The full story is here.

Some leftover stuff from BC coach Jerry York …

BC, the defending national champion, missed the NCAA Tournament in 2009 after winning its third national crown at the Pepsi Center-hosted Frozen Four in 2008. DU, the 2004 and 2005 national champ, knows a little bit about that, as the Pios missed the 16-team tournament in 2006 — even with guys like Paul Stastny, Matt Carle, Gabe Gauthier and Peter Mannino in the lineup.

“We went through it in 2001 and 2008 and did not handle it very well,” York said of defending the crown. “Expectations are high but you lose people and the team is different.”

BC lost forwards Ben Smith, Matt Price and Matt Lombardi, and defenseman Carl Sneep, to graduation. The Eagles, who avoided any early departures, return their top three scorers in Cam Atkinson, Brian Gibbons and Joe Whitney, and four-year starting goalie John Muse.

York said replacing the leadership of Price and Smith is paramount, but Whitney is doing a good job so far.

I spoke to BC coach Jerry York this morning about the top-ranked Eagles’ series this weekend at No. 6 Denver. I’ll save most of what we talked about for Friday’s paper, but for a teaser, I’ll disclose that he was surprised at DU’s performance last weekend at Vermont (5-3 win, 1-1 tie), given all the players (nine) the Pioneers are replacing from last season.

He also said losing to the Pioneers 4-3 on Jan. 2 in the Denver Cup finale was, in hindsight, one of the things that made BC, the eventual NCAA champion, such a good team in March and April. “We lost to a better team and knew we had to improve,” York said. The Eagles led 2-0 and 3-1 in that game before the Pioneers rallied late (four third-period goals).

It’s all too easy for struggling programs to let the rest of a league do all the heavy lifting in terms of scheduling and RPI. Give Rams basketball coach Tim Miles a ton of credit: he’s willing to chip in Colorado State’s share.

Win or most likely lose to Kansas Dec. 11 in Kansas City, CSU will benefit by the experience of playing against the best. CSU’s RPI, based in part on strength of schedule, will get a boost.

He’s not promising a win. But with a new influx of talent arriving in the fall, he said “We’re at a point we have enough talent to be ready to compete every night.”

Fellow Mountain West members San Diego State, Utah, BYU and New Mexico all have inherent built-in advantages in attracting high-level opponents on home-and-home deals. They play in facilities that have hosted NCAA Tournaments through the years. Add in UNLV with a number of early season tournaments in the city.

The CSU-Kansas game will be played in Kansas City, an arrangement similar to CSU playing at the Pepsi Center in Denver. The Rams have played some games in Denver but not in recent years.

“We have not discussed the Pepsi Center,” Miles said Thursday. “Scheduling is its own monster but I would never discount anything.” He said he has three or four games to fill and the 2010-11 schedule.

Miles, incidentally, was in Minnesota recruiting Thursday. He doesn’t expect to sign any players next month. It doesn’t mean staying home. “You’re always recruiting, it’s like breathing,” he said.

Kensler joined The Denver Post in 1989 and has covered a variety of beats, including Colorado, Colorado State, golf, Olympics and the Denver Broncos. His brush with greatness: losing in a two-on-two pickup basketball game at Ohio State against two-time Heisman Trophy winner Archie Griffin.

Terry Frei graduated from Wheat Ridge High School in the Denver area and has degrees in history and journalism from the University of Colorado-Boulder. He worked for the Rocky Mountain News while attending CU and joined the Post staff after graduation. He has also worked at the Oregonian in Portland, Ore., and The Sporting News. His seventh book, March 1939: Before the Madness, was issued in February 2014.